


Always 1895: BBC Sherlock, A Fix-It Fic in Five Series

by SweetLateJuliet



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:58:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetLateJuliet/pseuds/SweetLateJuliet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holmes and Watson don't really end up together. Sherlock and John might.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always 1895: BBC Sherlock, A Fix-It Fic in Five Series

**Holmes and Watson don’t end up together.**  


In ACD canon, they certainly have an enduring friendship. But “Holmes and Watson solving cases at 221B Baker Street” is only a part of their long acquaintance.

They meet in 1881 and live together until Watson’s marriage in 1888. Holmes “dies” in 1891 and returns in 1894. Watson moves back to Baker Street shortly thereafter in the wake of his “sad bereavement.” Vincent Starrett’s famous poem “[221B](http://www.always1895.com/)” celebrates these halcyon days:

> Here dwell together still two men of note
> 
> …
> 
> Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
> 
> And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

But it  _isn’t_ always 1895 for them, and in 1902 Watson moves out again for private practice and marriage. Holmes retires alone to the Sussex Downs in 1903, and by the time of Holmes’ last recorded case in 1914 the old friends rarely see each other. Over a 33-plus-year relationship, they live together at Baker Street for less than half, and drift apart at the end.

Some lines from ACD canon follow in chronological order (according to when the stories are set, not when they were published).

Ending of “The Sign of the Four,” after Watson tells Holmes of his engagement to Mary Morstan:

> “The division seems rather unfair,” I [Watson] remarked. “You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?”
> 
> “For me,” said Sherlock Holmes, “there still remains the cocaine-bottle.” And he stretched his long white hand up for it.  
> 

“A Scandal in Bohemia”:

> I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us away from each other… From time to time I heard some vague account of his doings… Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of my former friend and companion.

“The Engineer’s Thumb”:

> I had returned to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Street rooms…

“The Final Problem”:

> It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my subsequent start in private practice, the very intimate relations which had existed between Holmes and myself became to some extent modified. He still came to me from time to time when he desired a companion in his investigation, but these occasions grew more and more seldom…

Watson writes of his “heavy heart” and the “void in my life” caused by Holmes’ death in “The Final Problem,” and “the sudden flood of joy, amazement, and incredulity which utterly submerged my mind” when Holmes returns in “The Empty House.” 

The depth of Holmes’ feeling for Watson is shown in “The Three Garridebs” (Watson narrating):

> In an instant [Evans] had whisked out a revolver from his breast and had fired two shots. I felt a sudden hot sear as if a red-hot iron had been pressed to my thigh. There was a crash as Holmes’s pistol came down on the man’s head. I had a vision of him sprawling upon the floor with blood running down his face while Holmes rummaged him for weapons. Then my friend’s wiry arms were round me, and he was leading me to a chair.
> 
> “You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!”
> 
> It was worth a wound—it was worth many wounds—to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.
> 
> “It’s nothing, Holmes. It’s a mere scratch.”
> 
> He had ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife.
> 
> “You are right,” he cried with an immense sigh of relief. “It is quite superficial.” His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. “By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive.”

But within a year of those events, Watson leaves 221B for good.

“The Illustrious Client”:

> I was living in my own rooms in Queen Anne Street at the time…

“The Blanched Soldier,” one of two stories narrated by Holmes:

> The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association. I was alone.

“The Mazarin Stone”:

> It was pleasant to Dr. Watson to find himself once more in the untidy room of the first floor in Baker Street… Finally, his eyes came round to the fresh and smiling face of Billy, the young but very wise and tactful page, who had helped a little to fill up the gap of loneliness and isolation which surrounded the saturnine figure of the great detective.

“The Lion’s Mane,” which occurs after Holmes’ retirement and is the other story he narrates:

> At this period of my life the good Watson had passed almost beyond my ken. An occasional week-end visit was the most that I ever saw of him.

“His Last Bow”:

> “But you, Watson”—he stopped his work and took his old friend by the shoulders—“I’ve hardly seen you in the light yet. How have the years used you?”

and

> “As to you, Watson, you are joining us with your old service, as I understand, so London won’t be out of your way. Stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have.”

_For me there still remains the cocaine-bottle_

_Drifted us away from each other_

_Knew little of my former friend_

_Finally abandoned Holmes_

_More and more seldom_

_Deserted me for a wife_

_Loneliness and isolation_

_Watson had passed almost beyond my ken_

_The last quiet talk that we shall ever have_

  


This is not how I like to think of them.

And yet this is how Sherlock and John finish S3 of BBC _Sherlock_. The distance between them after their former closeness is painful.

**I think and hope this means Sherlock and John are taking all their lumps now.**

The marriages to others, the private practice, the loneliness, the poignant separation: For Holmes and Watson, it started fairly early in their relationship and continued unevenly for years, with an eventual drift into largely separate lives.  **BBC _Sherlock_ is rearranging the Holmes-and-Watson timeline to do all of this now, all at once. They’re getting it over with.** (My hopefulness on this point is significantly informed by acafanmom's excellent close reading of S3 in her [meta series](http://archiveofourown.org/series/69868).)

And when they’ve worked through it, I think we’ll have what we’ve always wanted: **Sherlock and John, together at 221B for the long haul.**

BBC  _Sherlock_ could be the ultimate fix-it fic for Holmes and Watson.


End file.
